CODEINE COUGH SYRUP ROW | Akhilesh Yadav alleges multi-crore racket, says truth being hidden despite 118 FIRs

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday intensified his attack on the Yogi Adityanath government over the codeine cough syrup controversy, alleging that a massive illegal trade worth thousands of crores was being shielded despite more than 118 FIRs registered across 36 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Addressing the media, the former chief minister claimed the illegal network had spread as far as the Prime Minister’s parliamentary constituency and alleged that the government was deliberately concealing key facts, taking no concrete action against those at the top of the chain. Referring to the political row over photographs, Yadav said the government was selectively using images to deflect attention and argued that if anyone seen standing with him was being labelled a mafia, the same yardstick should apply to everyone, including himself, as he too had photographs with the chief minister and both deputy chief ministers.

Yadav accused the chief minister and those standing with him of spreading falsehoods to mislead the public and said that if the government was genuinely serious about acting against mafias, bulldozers should also be sent to the houses of all those whose photographs were being circulated with him. Naming figures derisively as “Kaleen Bhaiya” and “Codeine Bhaiya”, he demanded that every person involved in the illegal trade face uniform action without discrimination. A day earlier, he had targeted the government on social media platform X with a poetic post accusing it of shifting blame under pressure, sharing photographs of the chief minister and the two deputy chief ministers, and claiming they were standing together out of fear. Yadav also called for a separate GTF, alongside the Special Task Force, to probe drug abuse and the illegal cough syrup trade.